What to do with Riccia?

Bk828 said:
algae is attacking the plant since its not getting enough light/nutrients/co2. Looks like Rhizoclonium algae. I had it before when i had dead spots. Does the tank get enough flow??

If you can rinse the mat under the faucet and place it back in the tank. Make sure it gets full light and flow.
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I have it anchored and floating at the surface of the water next to the Filter outlet.

The other side of the tank has dead spots, but where the riccia is it has flow..

Same dosing as I been doing, this type of algae is no where else in my tank, only on the riccia/ plastic canvas pieces.. As you can see the growth is very extreme :confused:

I think it must be from the not perfect flow of the Co2 I have. The welding refill station broke my regulator and they have ordered me a new one, now I am using a loaner they gave me and I can't get a perfect flow rate like I could with the one I had.. I should be getting my replacement on Monday.

Also, I have floating plants that are blocking out to much light which leads to not enough light for my plants to use the Co2 and nutrients properly.

Does this sounds about right?
 
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Seriously the Rhizoclonium algae confused me alot. I had a big outbreak of it when I thought i was treating the tank good, high co2, good fert schedule, good photoperiod.. But when i lost time for the tank, didnt dose ferts every day and water level went so low that the filter output was creating tons of water movement (low co2) the algae went away almost completely.
Though another thing you can do is just leave it alone and forget about it.
 
Bk828 said:
Seriously the Rhizoclonium algae confused me alot. I had a big outbreak of it when I thought i was treating the tank good, high co2, good fert schedule, good photoperiod.. But when i lost time for the tank, didnt dose ferts every day and water level went so low that the filter output was creating tons of water movement (low co2) the algae went away almost completely.
Though another thing you can do is just leave it alone and forget about it.
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So with no nutrients in the water and low Co2 level and lots of surface agitation this algae went away? Confusing lol..

I'm starting to think that this planted tank thing is more of just algae control hobby rather then enjoying the planted tank..
Take 100 people with a planted tank, 5 of them will succeed in a properly balanced aquarium..

I'm very close to closing up shop and selling everything I got and move over to lizards..
 
Jag1980 said:
So with no nutrients in the water and low Co2 level and lots of surface agitation this algae went away? Confusing lol..

I'm starting to think that this planted tank thing is more of just algae control hobby rather then enjoying the planted tank..
Take 100 people with a planted tank, 5 of them will succeed in a properly balanced aquarium..

I'm very close to closing up shop and selling everything I got and move over to lizards..
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lol dont give up just yet.. also dont put 2 much thought into it. When you leave things be they seem to do better. It takes time to find a proper balance in a planted tank. Keep playing with your ferts, dont just go by suggested dosages, but go by your view of how the plants are doing.
If all fails then give low-light tank a try (or atleast between low/medium) Its very hard to mess up with moss, anubias, ferns and crypts.
 
Right now my Phoenix moss is covered in hair and staghorn algae..

I will get a couple more things for this tank and give it a couple more months. I need a deeper tank since I can't do anything with a 12" deep tank..

After I get a couple more things, I will try and fine tune this tank.
If I still have problems I will be selling all my fish, my plants and equipment and moving to lizards.

Low light plants cost way to much, $9 for a low light Anubias plant that I can never see grow. I need about 8 of them to get my fill of what I like. Then algae can still grow on that anyway, so it doesn't really fix my problem, only slows it down. This welding place that screwed my out of my regulator for over a week now turned my tank into crap just as I finally got a high tech automated set up and my dry bulk ferts.. The past 10 days is the worst outbreak of algae I have ever seen...
 
Would turning out the lights/shutting down the CO2 for the last few days be a good option for Jag since his CO2 is outta wack due to mech problems?
 
Good idea, I should have not dosed my tank while having this wacky Co2 loaner.

I think I will do a black out tomorrow to help remove some of this algae, then when I get my system setup back for Tuesday, I will start my full schedule from that.
 
Something Bk said in one of his posts about dieoff having brought this same problem to him in the past, grabbed my attention. Mostly I see ppl using the semi-clear plastic and noticed yours was opaque brown. Could this have caused some die off due to lack of exposure to the lights in the initial stages? Perhaps the combo of die off and the regulator issue teamed up? I'd say if you're getting less than usual CO2 ya, reduce lighting to ballance and stop using ferts until you see signs that they are needed in your plant growth from everything I've learned here so far, but I'm unclear if you ARE getting less, or just an unstable flow that goes up and down. If you can't regulate it, kill it completely, stop ferts, and reduce light intensity/photoperiod til your regulator gets there would be my best guess as how to proceed.
 
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